Looking for pet events in your area this weekend? Check out the following list to find dog shows, cat shows, and other fun pet events happening near you!

July 26:

Yucca Valley, CA: CFA Allbreed Cat Show presented by Abyssinian Breeders International

Del Mar, CA: Summer Portraits with Your Pet

South Windsor, CT: Pointer Associates Breed Show

Madison, OH: Pet Day @ Debonné Vineyards

Red Lion, PA: Pet Wash to Benefit Meals on Wheels

July 26/27:

Kissimmee, FL: 2008 Southeast Regional Awards Cat Show & Banquet

Salem, NH: New Hampshire Feline Fanciers CFA Cat Show

Bloomsburg, PA: Lackawanna Kennel Club Point Show 2008

Longview, TX: 2008 AKC Licesnced All Breed Dog Show

Winchester, VA: The Cat Fanciers of Washington 62nd Allbreed Show

Yakima, WA: Cat Fanciers Championship and Household Pet Show

Waukesha, WI: Waukesha Kennel Club All-Breed Dog Show

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Anti-inflammatories and dietary supplements have been the mainstay for treating the pain associated with dog arthritis. Another novel option you can now consider for your arthritic pet is stem cell therapy. A San Diego based company called Vet-Stem is using stem cells to help treat arthritis, tendon and ligament injuries. These cells are taken from a pet’s own abdominal fat and then injected into the ailing joint or tissue. Essentially, this allows the tissue to help heal itself.

So far, Vet-Stem reports 3,249 dog and horse owners have performed stem cell transplants with 80% of these patients showing some sign of improvement. The price tag is not cheap at $2,000 but rivals some surgical procedures that are required for arthritis and certain joint injuries. More than 1,000 veterinarians have been trained to perform this procedure by Vet-Stem…ask your veterinarian if this might be an option for your pet’s arthritis.

Q: In the book, The Whole Pet Diet, it is suggested that the use of cottage cheese should be limited. Can you explain why? Are there symptoms that a pet has had too much cottage cheese?

A: In general, animals lose their ability to properly digest milk products after weaning due to a decrease in the enzyme called lactase. If animals are constantly exposed to some milk products, they can re-develop proper levels of that enzyme, but in general most are almost like quasi-lactose intolerant. Cottage cheese might be too fatty or high in protein for some animals.

If a pet has been consuming some dairy throughout life, they will likely never have a problem. If dairy is new, they may have some temporary (few weeks) diarrhea while they regain some of these enzymes.

Do you need vet advice? Post a comment with your veterinary questions and we will send them to Dr. Donna Spector to be answered in a future column.

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On Friday, a Philadelphia appeals court overturned the 2005 conviction of a man sentenced to three years in prison for selling dogfighting videos. Robert Stevens was the first to be prosecuted under a 1999 federal law criminalizing the sale of videos depicting any type of animal cruelty. The court decided that these videos were protected under the 1st Amendment, and stated that it would not recognize animal cruelty as a new category of speech that is not protected.

Although video and photos, even those depicting illegal conduct, are clearly protected under the 1st Amendment, this law was designed to make animal cruelty akin to child abuse, depictions of which are not protected. Judge Brooks Smith of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that while preventing cruelty to animals was a worthy cause, it was not in the same category as preventing cruelty to children. “Where children can be harmed simply by knowing that their images are available or by seeing the images themselves, animals are not capable of such awareness,” Smith wrote. “The fact that the act of cruelty was captured on film in no way exacerbates or prolongs the harm suffered by that animal.”₁

Though there has been no reaction from the Justice Department at this point, there is the possibility of the government appealing to the Supreme Court, which often happens when a federal law is deemed unconstitutional.

What do you think? Should videos showing animal cruelty be protected by the 1st Amendment? Leave a comment to share your thoughts on this topic.

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1 Duffy, Shannon. 3rd Circuit Strikes Down Law Criminalizing Sale of Animal Cruelty Depictions. [Online] Available http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423147825&rss=newswire, July 23, 2008.

A letter from one of our readers…

Dear Editor:

I discovered Halo products via the Ellen show several months ago, and I’ve been following the blog for several weeks now. After spending the weekend in Toronto, I decided to write in and see how people are feeling about dangerous dog legislation.

Ontario enacted a dangerous dog bill on March 1, 2005, and as of that day forward, you could no longer bring a pit bull into the province, and all pit bulls currently in the province, had to be sterilized. You can’t even drive through Ontario with a pit bull in your car. This, of course, generates a great deal of discussion between all of us dog lovers. I hate the idea of the ban; it’s so draconian, but admittedly, I cringe every time the neighbor’s pit bull goes crazy at the fence when I’m walking by.

I personally approach this discussion from several different angles. My best friend in the world has two Pit Bulls that I would trust with my children’s lives, whereas my Golden Retriever almost died because a woman couldn’t control her Cane Corso. On top of that, my heart was broken several years ago when my one-eyed Shitzu, who we rescued from the pound, had to be put down because he bit a child.

When you wrap all this together, I understand that every dog is its own person, but when something does go wrong, it can be devastating, and something can go wrong when you least expect it.

So what do we do? (more…)